Scoring spread is key for Rocks
Oulart seconds defeated
TARA ROCKS OULART-BALLAGH
HAVING A wider spread of scorers proved decisive as Tara Rocks booked their ticket to the last four of the Top Oil Intermediate ‘ A’ hurling championship with a 0-22 to 0-15 victory over Oulart-The Ballagh’s second string in Saturday’s entertaining quarter-final in Camolin.
The seven-point margin at the end is somewhat surprising considering that the sides were deadlocked at 0-10 apiece at the interval, and neither team created any real goal chances.
But then again, Oulart-The Ballagh scored only five more times after the break, four of which were placed balls from Peadar Mythen (three frees, one ‘65), whereas Tara Rocks made telling use of the stiff breeze by notching ten points from play from various distances and angles.
Veteran Michael Jacob knocked over on 37 minutes to give Oulart-The Ballagh their last flavour of the lead (0-12 to 0-11), although that was quickly cancelled out by a Niall Breen ‘65.
Lee Owley then twice cleverly pointed, the first from an acute angle and the second following a brilliant crossfield pass from Conor Devitt.
Breen converted another ‘ 65, and although two Mythen frees made it 0-15 to 0-14 with twelve minutes remaining, Peter Hughes, Owley again, Bobby Hughes from long-range and Breen’s sole effort from play had the gap as large as 0-19 to 0-14.
Oulart-The Ballagh then partook in aerial bombardment in an effort to save themselves, but could only add a Mythen ‘65 to their tally.
They were also reduced to 14 men during this spell when Tomás Dunne was sent-off for an off-theball strike.
Tara Rocks managed their numerical advantage smartly by tagging on the last three scores, including two from Dean O’Toole to bring up that comfortable scoreline.
They were slow to get going in the first-half, as they had hit five wides by the 18th minute with the score tied at 0-6 apiece.
Bobby Hughes fired over Tara Rocks’ opener on two minutes, and five of their first-half tally came from frees shared between Breen (three) and O’Toole (two).
Meanwhile, Darren Nolan was in electric form for Oulart-The Ballagh, firing over four points in the first-half to bring up that 0-10 each interval parity.
Tara Rocks: Tom Hughes; Aidan Jones, Edward Hughes, Cathal O’Reilly; Mark Boland, Conor Devitt, Paudie Hughes; Niall Breen (0-6, 3 frees, 2 ‘65s), Niall Hughes (capt., 0-1); Bobby Hughes (0-4), Peter Hughes (0-2), Lee Owley (0-4); Patrick Fortune, Dean O’Toole (0-5, 2 frees), Ben O’Connor. Subs. - Rhys Owley for O’Reilly (22), Colin Breen for O’Connor (40), Stephen Hughes for Fortune (44), Jim Hughes for L. Owley (60), Murt Sheehan for E.Hughes (60+2).
Oulart-The Ballagh: Stephen Doyle; Seán Murphy, Nicholas Cullen, Laurence Prendergast; Darragh Nimmo, Niall Redmond, Tomás Dunne; Peadar Mythen (0-8, 7 frees, 1 ‘65), Michael Jacob (0-2); Adam Nolan, Ben O’Connor (capt., 0-1 free), Cormac Finn; Cathal Kenny, Darren Nolan (0-4), Gary Murphy. Subs. - Eoin Moore for Kenny (37), David Rossiter for Prendergast, inj. (48), Darryl Gray for Finn (51).
Referee: Mick Lanigan (Shelmaliers).